Vernor Vinge’s notion of the “programmer archaeologist” really is about discovering what’s already out there, and placing it into valuable context. The mashup, the journalist-blogger and the participative website are aligned with this concept; the traditional requirements-driven “software engineer” and the traditional newspaper journalist are not.

Yelvington seems to be focusing on what happens when programmers put a halt to their ego and start using tools already out there. Another question worth asking is “What kind of newspaper would happen if journalists could only use the information that had already been published?”

The actual paper would be much thinner, sure. But I can see reporters diving into old content and figuring out new ways to piece together existing information — basically, adding more context to the news. More on this later…